The Trump administration is considering removing sanctions placed on Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, a top White House advisor said Friday.
Lifting the punitive sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime is “under consideration,” Kellyanne Conway said during an interview on Fox News.
“You know what the president has said: It’s America first, and that includes in his foreign policy and his national security moves,” Conway said, adding that if Russia was willing to join the fight “to defeat and eradicate radical Islamic terrorism, then we’re listening.”
President Trump and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to speak by phone on Saturday, and are expected to discuss the issue of sanctions. Trump said Friday during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May that it was “very early to be talking about that,” with respect to lifting sanctions. May reiterated her opinion that “sanctions should continue.”
Trump has consistently expressed a desire to forge a closer relationship with Russia, and often notes that Putin once called him a “genius.” Democrats and other Trump critics are waiting anxiously to see what the Trump administration will do on the issue of sanctions, especially in light of the intelligence community’s finding that Russia actors hacked Democratic Party email accounts in an effort to help Trump win the election against Hillary Clinton.
Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, warned Friday that sanctions should only be lifted in response to demonstrable concession from Russia. “To lift sanctions on Russia for any reason other than a change in behavior that led to those sanctions would send a dangerous message,” the senator wrote on Twitter. Portman also suggested the U.S. Senate take steps to “codify the sanctions against Russia into law.”
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: The Forbidden Bromance (Video)
TAKE THE POLL
